Technology has existed to connect integrated circuits to printed circuit boards (PCBs). Known previously are various forms of surface mount technology, such as “chip on board” technology, wherein a semiconductor die is glued to a printed circuit board (PCB), wire bonded, and covered with a drop of epoxy. Another known surface mount technique is a “flip chip” technology, wherein a semiconductor die is inverted and connected by various forms of extensions of its bond pads directly to electrical connection points or pads on the PCB. In some systems, ceramic packages have lead frames which are soldered to the PCB. Other forms of current surface mount technology include inverting a semiconductor die onto the PCB and using solder pads distributed over the upper device or surface of the semiconductor die, protected by a polyimide layer, for both attachments and electrical connections.
Infrared image detector systems have been utilized previously for infrared cameras and other infrared devices. Many infrared image detectors require a vacuum package that makes the use of surface mount technology impractical. Thus, surface mount technology has traditionally been considered incompatible with and has not been used for vacuum-sealed infrared image detector arrays.
One example of a vacuum-sealed infrared image detector is a wafer-level vacuum-packaged infrared detector available from the Commercial Infrared division of L3 Communications. These infrared detectors are mechanically mounted to a heat sink and then electrically connected to processing circuitry on a PCB by a flat flexible multi-conductor lead, or ribbon connector, attached to semiconductor die bonding pads with anisotropic conductive film (ACF) on one end and a pin connector on the other. These thin ribbon connector conductors, however, are vulnerable to damage incurred by excessive flexing, and can be cumbersome. Examples for wafer-level vacuum-packaged infrared detectors are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,392,232; U.S. Pat. No. 6,479,320; U.S. Pat. No. 6,521,477, U.S. Pat. No. 6,586,831; U.S. Pat. No. 6,690,014; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,777,681; each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.